Bright and early

First things first. Learning begins at birth - some would argue it starts in the womb - and children quickly assemble the building blocks of life.

Kevin Parrish

First things first. Learning begins at birth - some would argue it starts in the womb - and children quickly assemble the building blocks of life.

A nationwide study from the Annie E. Casey Foundation demands a stronger connection between those formative preschool years and primary education.

Children Now is the Oakland-based partner of the foundation's annual Kids Count statistical report. It calls upon the California Legislature to prioritize early childhood development as the state's economy improves.

"Lawmakers have got to understand that they can't balance their budgets on the backs of young people," said Richard Jones, interim director of the Stockton Boys & Girls Club. "That is not the way to go."

Jones has seen the importance of learning at a young age from inside the public school classroom - and out. He served seven years on the Lodi Unified School District's Board of Trustees and 19 years as chief executive officer of the Lodi Boys & Girls Club.

He retired in 2011 to return to his hometown of Toledo, Ohio, to be near his siblings. Jones returned to San Joaquin County last month as the interim director of the Stockton club.

"What we do is so vital for the kids," he said. "The first hour of every day, they go to different parts of the building to do homework. They do that first: homework, study and enrichment. Then activities."

The new study was released Monday and looks at the number of children living in poverty state by state. California has a total of 4.6 million children younger than 8. Almost half of them are considered low-income.

Ted Lempert is the president of Children Now.

"The first step is not to go backward," he said. "If you look at the state budget, these programs were cut the most during the downturn. That is totally nonsensical."

Lempert said the study is an attempt to more strongly link what happens in life's earliest years with long-range educational outcomes. The findings demonstrate a wide disparity in academic achievement based on race and family income.

"Reading by the third grade has a dramatic connection to graduation rates," Lempert said. "This tries to say that kids need help early and let's make sure they have equal opportunity."

Children Now's director of research lives in Stockton. She said she wants to see a standardization of developmental milestones for children younger than 5.

"That's what this report gets at - things are fractured and fragmented right now," said Jessica Mindnich, who commutes to Oakland twice a week. "It's hit or miss."

Mindnich, 36, has a personal example of the direction she believes California - and the nation - should go.

When her youngest daughter, Emma, was 9 months old, Mindnich noticed she wasn't babbling as much as her older daughter, Alex.

"I flagged it with our pediatrician. At 18 months, we did a full assessment with Family Resource and Referral Service," she said. "She had delayed speech and sensory development."

And Mindnich, using her University of California, Berkeley, education and on-the-job experience, got her daughter the help she needed.

Today, Emma is a 6-year-old first-grader and doing well in school. Mindnich, who graduated from Lincoln High School, realizes her good fortune. Subsequent state budget cuts have reduced the programs she used at the time. And she had other advantages.

"I had transportation and a flexible schedule for appointments," she said. "I am aware of the privileged position we were in and, even so, it was hard to get and coordinate all these treatments."

She and Lempert seek more affordable, equitable access to the maze of available services.

Much has been done to improve secondary education in even the poorest neighborhoods. They're asking for a similar emphasis on even more critical years in a child's life.

Lani Schiff-Ross, executive director of First 5 San Joaquin, felt "cognitive dissonance" when she read the national report.

She was saddened by the reminder that federal funding continues to fall and heartened by the validation that the county is "doing all the right things."

Schiff-Ross also believes the link between preschool and kindergarten needs to be improved.

"Our challenge is to see that what we learn is carried over into future years," she said. "We want to partner with parents. Because of what we know about poverty, we need more additional money for our communities and our parents."

Mindnich said she believes California is one of the few states where progress is being made on the importance of early childhood development and preschool.

"Kids are little sponges. They absorb everything," she said. "We need to provide them with enriching opportunities when they are young."